Compassion Crashin'/Commentary
Tim Hodge: (gasps) It's raining outside. Welcome, Penguins! fans. Rob Corley: Hello, this is Rob Corley. And, uh, I was the director for this episode of 3-2-1 Penguins!, Compassion Crashin'. And I have with me here, Mr. Tim Hodge: Tim Hodge, who was executive producer on this one. Um, our writer lives in Florida and couldn't be with us today, David Murray. Um... Rob Corley: Yeah, Dave did a great job on the script. Tim Hodge: Yeah, um, now what--you've directed three episodes, right, or just the two? Rob Corley: Three. Tim Hodge: Three. And that--your first one you did was More is More. What did the--was this the second or the last one you directed? Rob Corley: I believe this was the last one. Tim Hodge: Okay, so you had a lot of--Another volcano! Rob Corley: Another volcano. Yes, very popular in Big Idea, uh, Penguins! episodes. Tim Hodge: Yes, this is the--I think I may have suggested this one to David. Rob Corley: I'm not surprised by that. Tim Hodge: Well, the Bible verse talks about pouring vinegar on soda, which is really cool that that's in the Bible. Rob Corley: Yeah, yeah. Tim Hodge: And-- Rob Corley: And the one thing that you can relate to vinegar and-- Tim Hodge: Is making a-- Rob Corley: Is making a volcano. Tim Hodge: For science fairs, yeah. Rob Corley: Yeah, everybody's done it, I did it. It's probably one of the one science projects I remember doing and loving. Tim Hodge: Oh. Yeah, we could still do it. I cleaned out my sink drain using-- Rob Corley: Oh, it works? Tim Hodge: It works better--yeah, you pour vinegar down your--oh, baking soda down your stuck drain and then, um, a bunch of, um, vinegar on top of the baking soda, and it kinda eats out the--whatever, the grease and stuff, and then, pour some boiling water after it. Rob Corley: Okay. Tim Hodge: And it's a lot better on the environment than harsh chemicals. Rob Corley: It's much safer, yes. I have to try that. Tim Hodge: You should. But of course, I'm sure your drains never get clogged. Rob Corley: No, they don't. They're pristine. Yeah. Tim Hodge: See, we use the volcano to hide her face. Rob Corley: We had to, yeah, we had to hide it behind the volcano. Tim Hodge: Now, do you remember who storyboarded this? It was--Todd Carter work on this one? Cuz that-- Rob Corley: Todd--no, Todd didn't, uh, he wasn't a storyboard artist on this one. I think it was Larry Sho. Tim Hodge: Larry Sho. Rob Corley: Larry Sho from California. Tim Hodge: Uh-huh. Rob Corley: And then, um, who else do we have? Tim Hodge: That's okay, you put me on the spot in the last episode, I decided to do the same thing to you. Rob Corley: It's been a little while. Tim Hodge: Yeah, now this is the only episode where we have a, the, um, the stormy sky outside, to make it look overcast. It's usually either a sunny sky or, um, starfield, you know, for nighttime. Day or night. But this one, we had the extra, and I think we borrowed that from Wizard of Ha's. Rob Corley: The background. Tim Hodge: I wanted to grab the stormy sky from that. Rob Corley: There's something interesting here, I know that there's a--the way the grappling hand comes out of the ship. Tim Hodge: Yeah, the galeezel thing? Rob Corley: The galeezel, yes, the galeezel arm? Tim Hodge: Yeah? Rob Corley: Does it grab--it's supposed to grab them behind? Tim Hodge: It is. Rob Corley: But in this episode, I don't know if we-- Tim Hodge: It grabbed Jason from the front. Rob Corley: It grabbed him from the front. Tim Hodge: That was a--that was, uh, something different, I don't know if it makes a difference or not. Tony Bancroft, um, storyboarded that. Rob Corley: He sure did. Tim Hodge: He'd--now I remember, cuz I saw those boards and I realized that was the first one he storyboarded, and I saw that like, obviously Tony hasn't worked on the show before. Rob Corley: That's right. Yes. Tim Hodge: But then, we thought, it works. Leave it. Rob Corley: It's like, why change it? We don't wanna have, you know, having backing into the room, unless he was carrying something against the door. Tim Hodge: Yeah, yeah. Rob Corley: Compassion Crashin'. Tim Hodge: I love the way this works, with the dark and the-- Rob Corley: Mm-hm. Tim Hodge: We kinda cheated, now, usually, you have a character with the whites of his eyes, you can kinda make that whites glow, but we had to put little lights on their eyes. Rob Corley: So the, you know, the designs were, um, were the props and everything was-- Tim Hodge: Was it Mark McDonnel? I know he worked on-- Rob Corley: No, Mark, Mark did layouts, he did the sets. Tim Hodge: Mm-hm. Rob Corley: Uh, that we needed for the exteriors, and, um. I believe that was, um-- Tim Hodge: Well see, it's a surprise cuz they didn't do it on their birthday. I'm sorry, I interrupted you. Rob Corley: That's okay. Tim Hodge: That credit list there. Rob Corley: Uh, Cedric? Cedric-- Tim Hodge: Ah, that's right! Yes, Cedric worked on this, yeah. Rob Corley: Is it Cedric Note: long e or Cedric Note: short e? Tim Hodge: You know, I have only spoken to him by email, I have never been on the phone with him. Rob Corley: Oh, okay. Tim Hodge: And he lives in Chicago, right? Rob Corley: Yes. Tim Hodge: So... Rob Corley: Actually, and then Brian Gall also did, uh-- Tim Hodge: That's right, that's right. Rob Corley: Brian Gall did most of the props for this, I think, uh, Cedric did some of the, um, uh, character designs. Tim Hodge: Okay. That's right, that's right. Rob Corley: And there were some extra props like, uh, the Miss Pretty Pretty--I had to design that because it was, uh, an oversight. Tim Hodge: Oh yeah, there's always those, like, props that come in after the story, you know, the storyboard artist comes up with another idea. And you either slap their hands and say "Stop coming up with ideas!" or say "I like that, okay, now I have to design a prop." Rob Corley: Yeah, so it fell on us to create the props. Tim Hodge: It's more fun to smack their hand, "Stop coming up with ideas!" Rob Corley: Stick with the script. Tim Hodge: You're an artist, don't have an imagination. Rob Corley: We don't need you to come up with clever ideas. Tim Hodge: Yeah, now this is a thing too, like the script says he gets these rocket wheelies. Rob Corley: Yes. Tim Hodge: It's like "Okay, we think we have to design rocket wheelies." But then we send the script to the, um, the networks for approvals and everything, and they say "Okay, if he's wearing skates of any kind, he has to have a helmet and elbow pads and knee pads and wrist guards. Rob Corley: Yes, all of the safety gear. Tim Hodge: So, we have to design more props. Rob Corley: Yeah, the wheels ac-- Tim Hodge: We can't even argue "but he's hovering, he's not gonna fall." Rob Corley: Yeah, he could still get hurt, though. Yeah, the, the rocket wheelies actually had two wheels on each skate. Tim Hodge: That's right. Rob Corley: But we were--we had to remove the interior wheel because it was-- Tim Hodge: Oh yeah, there was not enough room for his--his short little legs. Rob Corley: So we just went "Ah, take the wheel off." Tim Hodge: But they're still cool. Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: I'd like to have some. But how do they keep you straight up? What if they, like, went up and just, kinda, drug you around everywhere? Rob Corley: Yeah, how do you control them? Tim Hodge: I don't know, I think it would--if I were a kid, that would scare me. Rob Corley: He's always so clueless. Tim Hodge: Yeah, I think every--all the guys are in this one. Rob Corley: Eh, that's true. Tim Hodge: Well, our network, um, consultants, the educational consultants were, um, were women--are women, and, uh, so it was a fun--this was a particular episode was a lot of fun to discuss with them, cuz it was, you know, we're not getting what the, uh, the lesson's supposed to be, and they were trying to tell us. Just like, such an illustration. Rob Corlery: Of--exactly. Tim Hodge: "You're not getting it! Don't you know what compassion is?!" "Durrr, uhhhhh, I don't know." So, we quoted a lot of ourselves in the writing of this-- Rob Corley: Oh yeah, "Oh, you're such guys." Tim Hodge: I told them, I said "This feels like it's turning into an episode of Oprah", and they laughed and laughed. Uh, we, I--it sounds like we have a lot of arguments and I don't mean to present that, it was a lot of healthy discussion. Rob Corley: Oh, yeah. No, no. Tim Hodge: We get--we do get along great. Rob Corley: We actually had words in here before-- Tim Hodge; Yes. Rob Corley: --we had to go with symbols, again, because of, uh-- Tim Hodge: When this is released overseas-- Rob Corley: Yeah, or kids not being able to read. Tim Hodge: Yeah, of course, those were going by real fast, you know, so you can't read-- Rob Corley: So, there you go. I think you actually-- Tim Hodge: Yeah, I did those--that's right. Rob Corley: "Rob, don't do that, do this." Tim Hodge: Well, I think that was late, cuz you had done the words, and we realize-- Rob Corley: Yeah, and you just knocked them out real quick-- Tim Hodge: Cuz this is like, episode--no, this wasn't that early, but we were on, we were all learning we can't use words-- Rob Corley: Uh, yeah. Tim Hodge: --and text, in the, in these episodes. Rob Corley: I actually designed the chair too if I remember, uh, we had one-- Tim Hodge: Oh, you did that? Rob Corley: Yeah, when we had one early design, it just wasn't, quite what we were thinking and I was asked, uh, to come up with a rough design of what I thought would look like, and then, the, uh, designer actually redid the drawing, altering the style. Tim Hodge: It's fun that we--since David Murrey, the writer is also an artist, we could have had him design what he had in his head. Rob Corley: Yep. Rob Corley: Well, that was what was fun about working on the shows, too. You know, you could--not only could you direct, but, you know, you could storyboard sections if you wanted to or do moments in the stories, or, you know, pick the designs. Tim Hodge: Yeah, we're all hatching into them. Rob Corley: Exactly. Even if you had a particular, you know, strong opinion about the way something should look or hate this particular design Tim Hodge: Mmm hmm. Rob Corley: He's still celebrating. Tim Hodge: I love his hat, his Santa hat too for birthdays. Tim Hodge: We've used that feather duster before and since, too. In fact, I think it's in Wiki Tiki at the very end, Grandmum is packing it in the--not Wiki Tiki, in the Lazy Daze. Uh, she's packing it in the picnic basket. Rob Corley: Oh. Tim Hodge: Just cuz she's a strange old lady. Rob Corley: I love this. They freak out. Rob Corley: It's funny, he never--you just don't notice much of a change in Zidgel cuz it's pretty much his character mo--all the time. Tim Hodge: And these are the tests, to show whether he's compassionate or not. Rob Corley: Nope. Tim Hodge: Eh, that's always funny. Rob Corley: Yeah. Rob Corley: Their feet, you know what? Their feet remind me of candy corn. Tim Hodge: Mmm, candy corn. Rob Corley: Candy corn. Tim Hodge: They do. Oh my goodness, now it is making me hungry. Rob Corley: Is it lunchtime? Tim Hodge: I like candy corn except the kind that has the little--the little, uh, um, the brown tips on it. Rob Corley: Oh, I don't like those. Tim Hodge: Because it doesn't quite taste like chocolate, I mean, I love chocolate, but it doesn't-- Rob Corley: No, I don't--I usually pick those out. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Tim Hodge: Those are cool effects on there too. Rob Corley: Oh yeah. Tim Hodge: Cuz you never know how those are gonna, uh, end up, because when we see the original animation, it doesn't have effects added, it's not until late in the game-- Rob Corley: I'll bet all that actually gets, uh, put in there. Tim Hodge: Yeah, and then sometimes we, you know, we try to send reference to what we wanted it to look like, but sometimes, we get in a hurry and like, you trust them to come up with something cool. Rob Corley: Yep. Rob Corley: Well, that's what, you know, you--we don't realize our people that don't do this type of thing realize is that everything has to be thought through as much as possible. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: And we can't leave any detail to chance, unless you feel like you can trust the team important enough with it to pull it off. Tim Hodge: Right, yeah, stuff--stuff that might seem obvious-- Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: But it's a different obvious to every person who reads it. Rob Corley: Oh, yeah. Well, I mean--just like you were mentioning it earlier about the popcorn reference. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: Um, the Indians, too, you know, who was doing it, it's just not something that was common to them. Tim Hodge: Yeah, culturally, it wasn't-- Rob Corley: Yeah. I love this part where they are--they think it's a video game. Tim Hodge: Oh yeah. Rob Corley: I love this. Rob Corley: Yeah, Mark McDonnell did a great job on some of the sets. Tim Hodge: Oh, designing these asteroids too, yeah. I think we've used them in other episodes too. Rob Corley: Oh, okay. Tim Hodge: We've used a lot of asteroids in these shows. Asteroids and volcanoes. Rob Corley: Yeah. Volcanoes, yeah. Tim Hodge: Well, it's space, what else is there? Rob Corley: Love that. Rob Corley: It's that little puff. Tim Hodge: Yeah, highly influenced by Wile E Coyote cartoons. Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: Oh, there would have been, uh, a commerical break, I think. Rob Corley: Oh, okay. After the crash. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Tim Hodge: The one moment they ask, "How're you doing?" Rob Corley: Poor thing, no one's listening. Tim Hodge: Yeah, remember when I was pitching this story to David, uh, to write it. Uh, to get a picture of the relationship between Jason and Michelle. Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: I was like, "Have you ever missed your anniversary, David? No, haven't? Haven't not only felt about this." I think that kinda hit home. Cuz the next draft got a lot better. Rob Corley: Ouch. Tim Hodge: Like "Oh, yeah. Okay, now I remember that." So, I wonder how much of this was, like, quoting. Rob Corley: A little too close to home. Tim Hodge: Guys are just kind of dense, when it comes to that, so, forgive us, please. Rob Corley: We're very logical. Tim Hodge: Oh, I wouldn't say I'm logical, but-- Tim Hodge: Yeah, I do think in the original draft, these--the alien characters were just nondescript. Rob Corley: Oh, they weren't, uh-- Tim Hodge: Beings, yeah. Rob Corley: Oh, okay. Tim Hodge: These furry little, like, lint balls. Rob Corley: Oh. Tim Hodge: But as we delved into the script and went through a couple of drafts, we realized that it was about compassion. Rob Corley: Listening. Tim Hodge: It was about hearing someone out and listening to them, giving them a shoulder to cry on. Rob Corley: So that's what, sort of--the ear to listen. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: Yeah, when we originally boarded this, my mind--well, this was--it was a little, uh, thing there with Kevin, the metal he brings in is huge, and then we go to the close-ups, it shrinks. Tim Hodge: Whoops! Rob Corley: And it goes large again. Tim Hodge: Yeah, and I think those mistakes happen when you see the scenes come back and they're all out of order. Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: You don't necessarily have the other one to compare it to. Tim Hodge: Yeah, I would--I think what the original said was "Anybody bring a Q-tip?", but you can't mention brand names. Rob Corley: Oh. Tim Hodge: It would have been funnier cuz it's shorter. Rob Corley: Right. Rob Corley: Yeah, it always envisioned these, uh, it was gonna be hundreds of these things, large crowds of them. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: I think we actually boarded that way, but again, it was a budget thing, and, uh-- Tim Hodge: Yeah, you think it's like, um, of course, to the untrained person, you think, "Oh, you just program in more." Rob Corley: Right. Tim Hodge: But that takes more render time, it takes more time for animators to animate. Rob Corley: Well, you think multiply, you know, they're all the same, so just multiply them like crazy. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: You know. Tim Hodge: And it is cheaper than just doing them all from scratch, multiplying, but it does--it does, uh-- Rob Corley: Well, the time it takes. Tim Hodge: It adds--yeah, the time, and time is-- Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: Money. Rob Corley: Money. Tim Hodge: So, hopefully, you work within your budgetary restrictions and make it funny and entertaining. Rob Corley: Yeah, you're forced to, uh, ingenuity is the mother of invention? Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: Something like that? Tim Hodge: I think we used this cavern in somewhere else, too. We redressed it and kinda recolored it, and, uh, we used it in one of the final episodes, uh-- Rob Corley: Oh, really? Tim Hodge: Yeah, the--Between an Asteroid and a Hard Place. Rob Corley: Oh, okay. Tim Hodge: It's like, the next-to-last episode. Rob Corley: Now, I wonder how do we know they're female? Tim Hodge: Because she just said so. Rob Corley: Oh, how convenient. Rob Corley: Oh man. Tim Hodge: He just won't let it go. Rob Corley: Nope. Rob Corley: There it is again. Tim Hodge: What? You like the way they just repeat one word over and over? Rob Corley: Budda budda, budda budda, it's easy. Rob Corley: They listen, yeah. Tim Hodge: There comes the echoey voice again. Rob Corley: There it is, in that cavernous head. Tim Hodge: Well, he's in a cavern, too, so that should make it doublely echo. Rob Corley: That's true, she's the only girl. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: Wow, never thought about that. Well, Grandmum-- Tim Hodge: So, we tried--yeah, Grandmum, but on the ship, you know, the grandma doesn't really have an integral part in the plot, so, we tried to give Michelle as many plots as possible. Rob Corley: Yeah. Cuz the guys can sit around talk-- Tim Hodge: They can talk about sports and, yeah, you know, and-- Rob Corley: Food. Tim Hodge: Body noises. Rob Corley: Rude body noises? Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: Poor Michelle's--she's stuck with Miss Pretty Pretty. Tim Hodge: Yeah, and she doesn't even take her on every trip. Rob Corley: Oh, that's--yeah, you never see her all the time, yeah, you don't see it all the time. Tim Hodge: I like--oh, we'll do the commentary on that episode later, but that's the one where she goes to the beauty thing. Rob Corley: Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Tim Hodge: Miss Pretty Pretty loses an eye. But I'm getting sidetracked. Rob Corley: Yeah. Just focus on compassion. Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: Have some compassion. Tim Hodge: So have you been a more compassionate husband since working on this? Rob Corley: I was always compassionate. Tim Hodge: Oh, okay. Rob Corley: Yeah, you know, it's all about listening, you know. Tim Hodge: I'm sorry, what? Rob Corley: Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry. Oh, look at them down there. They're all gathering around. Tim Hodge: Bye! Tim Hodge: Awwww. Rob Corley: Mmmm. Tim Hodge: Yeah, the model has such big heads, they really can't hug too easily. Rob Corley: They touch arms. Tim Hodge: Yeah, touching each other's soldiers--shoulders. Soldiers? Rob Corley: What was behind her on the chair? Tim Hodge: That was a seatbelt, it kinda comes and goes from shot to shot. Thanks for pointing that out. Rob Corley: Sorry. Tim Hodge: You're fired. And there's the candy corn. Rob Corley: There's the candy corn foot. Yay! Yummy. Tim Hodge: You think we could get a deal with a candy company and make little candy corn-- Rob Corley: Candy corn feet? Like, penguin feet? Tim Hodge: Yeah. Rob Corley: That's what we call it--yeah, penguin feet. Who keeps a cactus in a jar? Tim Hodge: Grandmum, see? She's an eccentric old lady. Rob Corley: Okay, yeah. This was a tough scene to, um, to orient in, like, continuity, you know, her back, the table, where the kids are located. Tim Hodge: Yup. Rob Corley: I remember really fighting through. This scene-- Tim Hodge: Yeah, maintaining a cutting and screen direction is one of the toughest-- Rob Corley: And character relationships, you know, where they are in the room. Tim Hodge: Especially if they're moving around, if they're just sitting around a table, it's fine. Rob Corley: Yeah. Tim Hodge: But once they start moving around, you know. It's easy to confuse your audience. Rob Corley: Yeah. Well, it's the cutting, you know, she enters screen left, where would she be when we cut? Screen right, you know, it's like--oh. Tim Hodge: Ah, the volcano cake! Rob Corley: Oh, that was a bomb. Oh no, it was a volcano cake, that's right, it blew up, okay. Rob Corley: She's proud of her brother. Tim Hodge: Yeah. He's a sweetie. Everybody needs a brother like that. Rob Corley: And some compassion. That was a good one. Tim Hodge: Good job! Congratulations. Rob Corley: Yeah, thank you, that was a fun one to do. Tim Hodge: Well, I hope you enjoyed it, everybody. Join us in the next DVD. Rob Corley: Yes, maybe I'll be back. Maybe I won't. Tim Hodge: (gasps) Mystery! Tune in next time! Will Rob make it? Rob Corley: I gotta go eat, I'm hungry. Candy corn. Tim Hodge: Goodnight. Rob Corley: Goodbye. Category:Commentaries Category:Transcripts Category:3-2-1 Penguins! Commentaries Category:Research